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Wednesday, 17 April 2013

Something a little different

Just a short post today! Since moving house, it's been a while since I've been able to sit down with the kids to read anything, and therefore, I don't really have any new book reviews for their age group.

However, there are loads of children's apps out there, and I thought I'd write about Kate and Harry build a shiptoday. Basically, there are five steps, each with 5 options of a different ship component. It means that you can make a submarine with fairy lights and a cannon, or a pear ship with a mermaid fin instead of propellers. Once you've made your ship, there's a short sail, where you can tap Kate or Harry (whoever you've chosen) to get them to say hello, as well as various other things to keep engagement up.

I'd thoroughly recommend this one! If I remember rightly, it's 69p from the Apple store, and it's the one app I have on my phone that keeps both Caitlin and Lewis happy. It's saved the day (and my sanity) on a fair few occasions when they were bored and bickering. One 'go' lasts for about a minute, so it's perfect for making them take turns. They always end up with something different since there's so much choice, and it can also be a way of focusing them. You can get them to make the perfect pirate ship, for example. Actually, I've also played this with N, my best friend's nephew. The complete opposite from Caitlin and Lewis, N had to be encouraged to make random choices, and spent all his time making submarines!

I have a few reading apps I've been trying out with the kids too, but I'll talk about these another time. Does anyone have a good app they find is fail safe with their children?